Ukraine’s Finance Ministry placed locally six-month, USD-denominated bonds at a 5.0% rate and three-year USD bonds at a 5.4% rate on Dec. 19, raising a total of USD 402 mln. On top of that, it raised UAH 459 mln from the placement of three-month and six-month UAH denominated bonds at the rates of 16.0% and 15.95%, respectively.

Including the latest placement, MinFin managed to attract on the domestic market USD 0.52 bln from foreign currency bond placements in December, vs. USD 0.68 bln attracted in November and USD 0.72 bln attracted in 10M17. No more placements of local Eurobonds are scheduled for this year.

Alexander Paraschiy: The raised money will be directed to repay a USD-denominated local bond (USD 0.38 bln) that matures today. All the December placements won’t be enough to cover the foreign currency spending of MinFin and the central bank this month, which should result in Ukraine’s gross international reserves falling. We continue to expect Ukraine’s end-2017 gross reserves to be USD 18.6 bln, or slightly below the USD 18.9 bln level at the end of November.